


Blood Must Have Blood

by thelastjedi



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21773374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelastjedi/pseuds/thelastjedi
Summary: HYDRA interrupt your normal routine when they snatch you off the streets in search of Bucky Barnes.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 87





	Blood Must Have Blood

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Brief descriptions of torture, but nothing too wild.

As cliche as it sounded, your day really had started out just like any other.

You had woken up in the tower at around 9am, had breakfast with Bucky, Steve and Wanda, then hit the gym for your tri-weekly training session with Natasha. It was a familiar routine — one that you quite enjoyed — and your day was going well.

Until suddenly, it wasn’t.

Due to Tony’s (frankly incessant) whining about there being no more pie left in the tower, you had kindly offered to go and grab some, as well as any other things that the others deemed to be of vital importance— toothpaste, bread (both white and wholemeal), etc. Vision had kindly offered to go with you but you figured that may draw some unwanted attention, so you had politely declined.

The shopping trip itself had being fairly straight-forward, despite how busy the store had been at the time. You had been bumped into by several people, only a few of which had the decency to apologise, but you didn’t let that ruin your day. Instead, you bought your items with a smile and began the walk back to the tower with your hands carrying the two shopping bags.

The walk home really wasn’t that long; maybe around ten minutes— fifteen at the most. Today though, you wouldn’t be making it back so soon.

Between all the hustle and bustle of the streets, nobody noticed a young girl such as yourself disappearing from the crowd. They simply stepped over or around the groceries that lay scattered on the pavement as they made their way to wherever they were going, unaware of the men who were dragging you against your will into a van that was parked in a side street.

You lashed out quickly in retaliation, the sound of a sickening crack giving you the satisfaction of knowing you hit your target.

“Stupid bitch,” the man muttered, wiping the drip of blood that came from his nose.

“I can almost guarantee that I’m smarter than both of you combined,” you retorted, this time choosing to kick your legs out violently, succeeding in giving your other captor a knock to his knee. You barely had time to boast before you were hit roughly in the back of the head, causing you to fall unconscious.

When you woke again a few hours later, your head was pounding. Wincing as you opened your eyes, you noticed you were in a room you didn’t recognise. The walls were an ugly shade of grey and there was a feeble excuse for a bed shoved in the corner. As far as rooms go, it wasn’t the nicest you’ve ever been trapped in.

Bringing a hand up to your head, you frowned at the sight of the blood that came with it.

“Assholes,” you mumbled, slowly attempting to sit up straight and groaning at the pain in your bones. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed a camera high up on the wall that was pointed right at you. You knew they were watching. “There’s not even a toilet in here,” you said loudly. “What kind of prison are you guys running? There’s no way I’m leaving you a good review.”

As if on cue, the door swung open then, revealing three men who looked like they’d never laughed once in their life.

“You’re not in _prison_ , Agent,” the man in front said with a chuckle. “Think of this as an opportunity.”

Your eyes fell to the skull with protruding tentacles that was stitched onto the man’s sleeve. God, of _course_ it was HYDRA. “An opportunity for what?”

“To save the world.”

You scoffed. “And how does _HYDRA_ plan on doing that?”

“Well, to start off,” the man crouched down in front of you while the others hung back to guard the door. “We need you to tell us where we can find James Barnes.”

A harsh laugh left your lips. “Bite me.”

You felt the pain immediately. The man, who you discovered was named Phillips, smirked down at you with bloody knuckles. You lay on the floor below him with a bruising eye, split lip and a still bleeding head. There was also a strong chance you had a concussion from the hit you received during your initial capture.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Agent,” Phillips said.

“And what way is this?” you managed to ask.

Phillips smiled and you noted that it somehow made him look even uglier. Huh. You didn’t think that was even possible. “This is just a warm-up.”

* * *

“Shouldn’t she be back by now?” Bucky asked, glancing at the clock for the fifth time in the span of a few minutes.

“Maybe the store’s just busy. It _is_ almost Christmas,” Steve suggested.

“It’s been hours, Steve.”

Steve paused.

“Maybe it’s _really_ busy?”

Bucky sighed and began to stand up from his place on the couch. “I’m going to look for her.”

“Hey,” Steve grabbed Bucky’s arm to prevent him from leaving, “you can’t. We haven’t cut off every head yet, Buck. They could still be tailing you.”

Bucky didn’t need to ask who he was referring to.

“So, what? I’m just supposed to wait here?”

“Yes,” Steve said simply, “I’ll go instead.”

Bucky hesitated before nodding reluctantly in agreement. If he couldn’t go, Steve would be his next choice. He knew his best friend wouldn’t give up. “Take Wanda, too. She’s getting cabin fever and she’ll be good back-up.”

“You got it.”

No more than ten minutes later, Steve and Wanda had already made their way out of the grocery store after having little success in finding their friend. They had shown your picture to any workers they could find but none of them could recall seeing you in the store that day. They did serve a lot of people, after all.

“What do we do now?” asked Wanda.

“We retrace her steps,” Steve decided. “We check every possible route from the store back to the tower. There’s gotta be something we missed.”

* * *

You had been trained for this type of thing— to withstand torture. You had once lasted a full week in the enemy’s hands and you still hadn’t given them the info they wanted, but that didn’t mean it had been easy. In fact, it was the opposite. And with HYDRA holding the knife? It was that much worse.

“I don’t even know who James Barnes is!” you lied feebly as the blade was pulled from your skin, leaving a bloody gash in your thigh.

“Is that so?” Phillips gestured for one of his henchmen to hand over their tablet and began to open up an image on screen. Once he’d found it, he held it out for you to see. “Then what’s this?”

On screen was a blurry, yet still recognisable, CCTV image from a mission your team had been on a few months ago. Some of the men had gotten away, but you had successfully taken down another of HYDRA’s bases and the image depicted the moment you had realised you were successful. You stood next to Bucky, both of you slightly battered but with growing relieved smiles on your faces. Natasha could be seen in the background high-fiving Clint.

You shrugged weakly in response, ignoring the pain the movement brought. “Photoshop.”

“Well, that is a shame,” Phillips sighed in disappointment and handed the tablet back to his minions. “Looks like we’ll just have to crank it up a notch.”

* * *

“You found a receipt?” Bucky asked blankly.

“Yes,” Wanda said. “But it’s hers. Look.”

Bucky fought the urge to retort childishly and instead, took the small piece of paper from the girl’s hands. It did, indeed, seem like it was yours as it listed several items that the team had requested before you left almost — he glanced at the clock again —12 hours ago now. The digits from the end of your credit card number were also listed at the bottom.

“Where did you find it?” asked Tony.

“Just off of West Street,” Steve replied.

“FRIDAY,” Tony began. “You have eyes around there, don’t you?”

“ _Yes, sir_ ,” the disembodied voice replied.

“I want you to check any security cameras around that area for our girl. You find anything, you let us know.”

“ _Yes, sir.”_

* * *

“I can do this all day, you know,” Phillips taunted.

_That’s Steve’s line_ , you thought bitterly.

Phillips turned out to be a tenacious and relentless man, the only break you had been given from his abuse was when you had passed out around an hour ago. He surprisingly had given you a short time to sleep before roughly waking you up again.

“So can I,” you croaked out, your throat slightly hoarse from the cries of pain that had been forcing their way past your lips all day.

“Is that so?” Phillips stepped closer to your weak form and laughed. “Because the way I see it, you’re about to fall apart.”

“I’d never give you that sense of accomplishment,” you told him harshly before doing the unexpected and kicking your leg straight into his groin with the last remnants of your strength. The man stumbled, a grimace covering his face and anger coursing through his veins.

His two henchmen quickly intervened and you used the energy you had been saving up all day to fight back against them, too. Hair was pulled, blood was shed and pain was felt by all.

“Hold her down!” Phillips ordered while stumbling to his feet.

The two HYDRA agents acted quickly and before you knew it, you were roughly slammed to the floor. Tears of pain formed in your eyes and you blinked rapidly to force them away.

“Give me her arm.”

At Phillips’ command, the men forced you onto your stomach and made sure you could no longer move. They forced your left arm out from under you and held it out for their superior; one of them going as far as to sit on your lower back to keep you from squirming. The weight of his body had you gasping for air and you whimpered weakly, shutting your eyes tight.

“Last chance, Agent,” said Phillips with his trusty knife in hand, poised to pierce your skin with the blade. “Where can we find the asset?”

You knew you could just give up and tell them where Bucky was. The small, selfish part deep down inside _wanted_ to but still, you couldn’t. You knew what Bucky had gone through with HYDRA - what they had made him do. He still had nightmares, he still remembered each and every person he had hurt as the Winter Soldier. You would never forgive yourself if he fell back into their hands. You would never forgive yourself if he got hurt.

“Go fuck yourself,” you told them resolutely.

* * *

“Run those plates, FRIDAY. I want to know where they went,” Tony ordered after FRIDAY had successfully found you on the street’s security cameras. The team had watched the footage back and saw you being dragged by the men into a nondescript van.

“ _Sir, I’m afraid the van disappears from any security cameras around_ _ten_ _minutes later._ ”

Sam cursed under his breath.

“Did you run facial recognition?” Tony asked.

“ _Of course, sir_ ,” FRIDAY replied before displaying the images of the men on screen with their names at the bottom. “I’m currently searching for them on all cameras; it appears they drove to an airfield on the outskirts of the city.”

“Wait,” Natasha frowned as she stepped closer to the screen. “We know them… Don’t we?”

“Weren’t they listed in the files we found at the last HYDRA base?” Sam asked, arms folded across his chest.

“Bastards,” Clint commented.

“An airfield,” Bucky said as if the rest of the conversation was just background noise. “So she’s probably not even in this country any more.”

“We don’t know that,” Steve said. “FRIDAY, can you pull up the map of all known HYDRA bases?”

“ _Certainly, Captain Rogers_.”

Steve studied the map for a moment, brain working overtime, before pointing to the closest possible location. “There.”

“You think they took her to Mexico?” Wanda asked.

“I think it’s worth a shot.”

“Cap, if we get this wrong,” Tony began. “It could be fatal.”

Steve turned to his best friend. “Buck?”

There was no hesitation as Bucky replied. “We’re going. Now.”

* * *

Tears fell down your cheeks, leaving dirty streaks that cut through the blood that stained your skin. Your body felt numb and your cries had turned into feeble moans by the time they forced themselves past your split lips. The HYDRA agents had left you after they’d finished carved into your skin and you felt a small sense of relief; one that was immediately squashed down every time you attempted to move even just an inch.

There wasn’t a single part of your body that didn’t ache and you were glad you had at least managed to get a few hits in before you were pinned down. They hadn’t bothered to wrap the fresh wound in your upper arm (not that you were surprised by this) and every now and again, you felt a drip of blood fall from the laceration.

It was a messy job, which was most likely their intention. Phillips had dragged out the torment for as long as he possibly could and many times throughout the day, you had wondered if you should just knock yourself out, simply so you no longer had to endure the pain— even if only for a little while.

You weren’t sure how long it had been since you were taken off the streets, but you knew the team would have noticed by now. Even if the rest of them hadn’t, Bucky would. Bucky always did. Maybe it was due to paranoia or anxiety, but any time someone was gone for longer than they were supposed to be, Bucky commented. Bucky worried. Bucky cared.

Forcing yourself to roll over onto your back, you cringed as you landed in the small pool of your blood that had been collecting there, but you knew you weren’t capable of making it any further. Squeezing your eyes shut, you prayed for some form of relief.

* * *

“How much longer?” Bucky asked impatiently.

“We’re going as fast as we can, Barnes,” Natasha replied from the pilot’s seat.

As soon as the decision to go to Mexico was made, the team had jumped into action. They suited up as quickly as possible and had commandeered a quinjet for Natasha and Clint to fly the team there. The entire team was on edge; Bucky had been clenching and unclenching his metal fist for the entire flight while Wanda attempted to distract herself by rolling a wisp of red magic around her fingers.

“ETA is 10 minutes,” Clint said. “Everyone get ready.”

“Let Birdman and I off here,” Tony commented, his Iron Man suit closing over his body and its eyes lighting up. “We’ll get a scope of the area before the rest of you land.”

Sam, equally tense, let the nickname slide and instead nodded in agreement. After a quick reminder from Steve to keep their comms online, the pair were flying out of the quinjet and heading for the HYDRA base.

A few moments passed before Sam’s voice came through. “We see the base,” he informed them. “Doesn’t look to be heavily guarded. Only a few men are outside.”

“Can you take them out without drawing attention?” Steve asked, immediately falling into his role as leader.

Tony scoffed. “Do you even know us, Cap?”

The sounds of Tony and Sam both taking down the guards could be heard through their earpieces as Clint and Natasha finally landed the quinjet a reasonable distance from the base itself.

“FRIDAY,” Clint said. “Be sure to keep the engine running. We don’t know how quickly we’ll have to get outta here.”

“ _Yes, Agent Barton_.”

As soon as the door was lowered, Bucky was already making his way outside, quickly followed by the rest of the team.

“Wait,” Steve told him, holding out a hand as he turned to face everyone. “Remember the plan. Tony and Sam take care of things up top and keep an eye out, Wanda and Clint take the west entrance, and Nat and Bucky take the north. I’ll circle back and take the east. If anyone runs into any trouble that they can’t handle, shout your location and the closest pair will make their way to you. If you get hurt, hurt them back.” The team nodded, each determined and poised to fight. “Let’s go find our girl.”

Not long later, Steve slammed his shield into a HYDRA agent who was stupid enough to approach him and continued on after the man had fallen to the floor, unconscious. The team had been inside the building for around 20 minutes and already the halls were littered with the inert forms of their enemies.

“Sam, any movement up there?” he asked quietly, his fingers pressing on his comms device.

“Not yet,” Sam replied. “We’re keeping an eye on the entrances. Nobody’s getting outta here without us knowing.”

“Bucky and I found a splatter of blood in a corridor we passed but we haven’t found anything else,” Natasha’s voice came through. “Looked pretty fresh, though.”

“It could be hers,” Steve theorised. “She’s close, I know she is.”

* * *

The sounds of men screaming and loud banging woke you up from your uneasy sleep. Your first thought was that Phillips had returned and brought more back-up with him, but this was different. These men sounded _scared_.

“It’s the witch!” A distant voice yelled in anger.

“Wanda?” You whispered and forced yourself to your knees. Most of your wounds had stopped bleeding by now, except the one on your arm which still continued to drip blood every now and then. Taking a deep breath, you began to stand on shaking legs but you didn’t make it very far before you fell down again, knocking into the bed and hitting your head for the second time that day. “Fuck.”

* * *

“Good job, kid,” Clint told Wanda after watching her take down several agents with a few flicks of her wrists. Thanks to her, he had only used a few of his arrows so far. “Let’s keep moving.”

The pair made their way down the now cleared corridor quietly, keeping an eye out for any other adversaries. They soon came upon another corridor that had rooms lined up on either side. Nodding to the side he would take, Clint began to peer through the small windows in the doors, while Wanda did the same on her side.

They had almost given up hope when Wanda felt something and froze. She could feel a presence nearby; a scared presence but a _familiar_ one.

“Clint!” she whispered frantically, allowing her powers to guide her.

Clint was by her side in a second and, with prompting from Wanda, looked through the small window she had come to a second before. “Shit,” he said. “Can you take care of this?”

“You know I can,” Wanda said, her lithe digits allowing her magic to swiftly open the door. Once it had swung open, Clint ran inside while she kept watch.

“Shit,” Clint muttered at the sight of you, barely conscious on the ground. The amount of blood throughout the room made his stomach clench. “Hey,” he said quietly, placing a hand on your shoulder and shaking you gently. You whined in response. “C’mon, kid. We’re getting you out of here.”

* * *

On the other side of the building, Bucky was losing hope. Each time they came upon a room, he thought he would find you inside — bruised and battered maybe but still alive — but he never did.

Natasha tried to help by continually telling him that the building was big and there were still plenty of places you could be, but her attempts fell on deaf ears.

“Cap?” Clint said through his comms device and Bucky prayed for good news.

“I’m here,” Steve replied, sounding a little out of breath.

“We found her.”

Despite Sam and Tony’s quick detour to round up the rest of the guards, Bucky and Natasha were the last ones to make it back to the jet. Although she desperately wanted to check on you, Natasha quickly fell into her seat next to Clint to bring the team home. She knew they needed to get out as soon as possible, since they may or may not have left a few explosives in the building on their way out.

Another HYDRA base was about to blow.

Boots hitting heavily against the ramp of the jet as he ran inside, Bucky’s eyes immediately fell onto your battered body that lay on the floor. Steve had covered you with the SHIELD jacket he found in the quinjet’s storage,Tony had shed his suit and was attempting to keep pressure on your worst wounds, while Wanda gently stroked your hair (which had been matted down with blood), being careful not to aggravate the injuries any further.

Bucky stepped forward but was cut off by a tired Steve who placed a hand against his chest to stop his movements. “Buck,” he said. “I don’t think you should look just yet.”

Bucky’s heart raced. “Is she—”

“No,” Steve said quickly. “She’s alive, but they hurt her— badly.”

“We know what that’s like,” Bucky glanced towards Wanda as he spoke. They were both more than familiar with the pain HYDRA could inflict.

“You might be a little too close to this,” Sam commented as he finally saw the source of the dried blood down your left arm. If the base wasn’t already rigged to blow, he would’ve gone back in to kick their asses tenfold.

Bucky’s eyebrows furrowed and in frustration, he pushed Steve back to make his way over to you. Steve stumbled in surprise, calling out to Bucky but quickly admitting defeat.

As soon as you were in full view, the back of Bucky’s eyes stung with unshed tears. Your eye was bruised and swollen, your lower lip was cut and bloody and there were contusions all along your right cheekbone. A large laceration was on your forehead and it continued on until it was covered by your hair, the sticky blood colouring your strands a morbid shade of red. Swallowing harshly, Bucky knelt down and slowly peeled back the jacket that covered you, preparing himself for even more blood.

But nothing could have prepared him for this.

He looked down at his metal arm in disgust as he willed his tears to go away.

“This is my fault,” he croaked out.

“No, it’s—”

“Look at her, Steve!” Bucky yelled, standing to full height as he fought past the lump in his throat. “Are you saying that has _nothing_ to do with me?”

The quinjet fell silent; the only noise that could be heard was the gentle rumble of the engine and your own weak breaths as you fought against your wounds. Steve’s gaze fell back onto the gash on your arm but broke his gaze after a mere second.

The bloody star that had been carved deep into your skin was an almost identical match to Bucky’s.

Steve was well aware that your time with HYDRA would leave behind both a physical and emotional scar, and his stomach twisted at the thought of the Nazi organisation being so goddamn obsessed with getting Bucky back that they went _this_ far.

“It’s not your fault,” he repeated.

Bucky sniffed, thankful that his hair covered the majority of his face as his gaze fell to the floor. “Then whose fault is it?”

* * *

Harsh white lights beamed down on you, causing you to wince and blink rapidly in order to adjust. There was pain radiating throughout your entire body, your brain struggling to catch up with everything that happened. The last thing you remembered was hearing someone yell about… a witch? And a familiar voice calling your name… Clint’s voice, you suddenly recalled.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” said Tony who suddenly walked into view with a relieved smile. “We thought you were never waking up.”

“Tony?” you asked, startled. “Are you real?”

“You know, you’re not the first person to ever ask me that,” Tony chuckled. “Stay put while I tell everyone you’re awake.”

After Tony left, it only took a minute before the door burst open again to announce Bucky’s entrance. Nobody argued with the soldier when he insisted on being the first to see you.

“You’re awake,” he said, voice strained as he lowered himself into the seat next to your bed.

“Apparently,” you said, lifting a shaky hand to gesture to his face. “You’re bleeding.”

Bucky let out a surprised laugh, quickly taking your hand and placing it back at your side. “You’re the one in the med bay and you’re worried about a little scratch on my face? It’ll heal, you know that.”

You shrugged sheepishly with a wince, which caused Bucky’s mood to sour again. His hand was still on yours when he asked quietly, “What did they want from you?”

He wasn’t sure why he even bothered to ask. He knew the answer.

“They wanted you,” you replied after a beat of silence..

Bucky inhaled sharply at your confession but didn’t seem surprised. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?” you frowned.

“They took you because of _me_ ,” he stated, features scrunching up in disgust. “They… _marked_ you because of me.”

“You weren’t the one who took me,” you glanced down at your arm and found it cleaned up and bandaged, the cut no longer on show. The memory of receiving the wound had you shifting uncomfortably. “You weren’t the one who picked up that knife. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I’ve been hearing that a lot lately,” Bucky said guiltily. “You should’ve just given me up. I could’ve handled it.”

“Even if this happened all over again, I would do the same thing. I’m not letting them near you.”

“You’re too good to me,” Bucky said, an attempt at being lighthearted as he finally allowed his tears to fall.

“I have to be now,” you said with a watery smile. “We’ve basically reinvented the idea of matching tattoos, y’know.”

Bucky smiled through his tears and placed a kiss to the back of your hand. “I’m gonna stay with you, okay? I won’t leave your side until you’re able to fully kick my ass, again.”

“Hey,” you placed your free hand on your chest in feigned shock. “I could still kick your ass, Barnes, even in my current condition.”

“Of course you could,” Bucky chuckled.

“Are you doubting me?”

“I’ve never once doubted you, doll.”


End file.
